St Vladimir's School for Therapeutic Needs
by x.WhisperTheseWords.x
Summary: "It was like the nightmares in St. Vladimir's were truly unravelling." ALL HUMAN. Lissa gets sent to a therapeutic boarding school, where she is assigned Dimitri as her guardian. Here she befriends Rose and other VA characters Lissa/Christian Rose/Dimitri
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! This story is going to be mainly in Lissa's POV, but there will be some Rose POVs.**

**Normal characters are included (I don't want to say their names in case some people like the surprise). Be warned, Lissa starts off with a personality of a royal moroi at the beginning. **

**Lissa/Christian pairings and Rose/ Dimitri pairings. **

**Summary: ALL HUMAN. Lissa has been sent to St. Vladimirs Boarding School for Therapeutic Needs. Here she will come across new friends and romance will blossom. But, there is something sinister in the walls of St. Vlad's and when strange things start happening, Lissa realises St. Vlad's isn't as safe as she thought. **

**The characters belong to the amazing Richelle Mead. **

L POV

I don't even try to be polite as I'm being taken to my bedroom. I think they must be used to that though as my bad mood isn't acknowledged by Guardian Whatever-His-Name-Is, and that annoys me because something tells me they have been trained to act this way when kids are "uncooperative" which would have been fine if it weren't happening to me since I don't deserve it. I'm not one of those wild crazy kids who are drug addicts or have violence issues. I'm normal. Normal with a tiny flaw, so tiny that it shouldn't mean I have to end up here. Urgh, but I _am_ here. And it _won't _be fun.

My guardian stops in front of door number 48 and opens it. "This is your room." He says, Russian tinting his America accent. Both he and I walk into an empty looking room with a single bed in the far corner. Everything is white; the walls, the carpet, the furniture. The only window in the room has a number of bars on the outside of it. It's like friggen prison. I see another door on the other side of the room and my heart literally cries with happiness; an ensuite bathroom. In the midst of everything, I had forgotten that every room has an ensuite. I know it doesn't sound like anything exciting but it would be the only place for solitude I could get. It was St. Vladimir's policy that every student has a guardian with them 24/7. This is just for caution, in case someone tries to do a runner or has snuck alcohol in or something that's against the school recovery program. I guess I was one of the lucky ones; I only had two guardians—one during the day and one during the night—but I was informed that some of the most serious cases in the school get up to five. I drop my bag and go to inspect it.

It was at the moment my eyes hit the vinyl floor that I felt my heart start to cry again. But this time, in utmost horror. It's cramped—and, surprise, all white— with a dingy looking toilet, a sink and a shower. That's it. Oh wait, no, there's a rug to step out of the shower onto. Whoopee. It's the bathroom version of a ghost town. No place to put my toothbrush, nothing to hang the toilet paper on, there's not even a _shower curtain._

"Is everything alright in there, Miss?" My guardian calls out. My anger swirls into a huge ball inside of me and almost feel like passing out from so much fury. Ha. Maybe they should have put me in the anger management department.

"What is this?" It comes out as a demented whisper.

"Your bathroom, Miss."

"Where is everything? Why isn't there—There's no mirror!" I hold onto the wall for support.

"A mirror violated the St. Vladimir's Policy of Students' Safe Wellbeing, Miss. If having no mirror bothers you so much, you may ask for some mirror tape." He paused and took a—so help me – amused pause. "Any other objects that could have been classified to be used to harm you or any other have never set foot in this building. Your room is identical to any other student here so do not feel it is personal."

His words were making me feel physically sick, as was his calm, authoritative tone. I think he added the politeness just to piss me off some more. And to make things worse, I felt angry tears building up, threatening to come out. Great.

I give an outraged shriek and slam the bathroom door close; I need some space to collect myself. Only the door swings open again. Perhaps I banged the door so hard that it bounced back open. I close the door again, more gently this time, and put my hand down for the key to lock it. Except, the door bounces back open again and the key is not in the keyhole. The door bounces open again probably because of crappy hinges. The key is not in the keyhole because there is no keyhole.

"Where's the lock on this thing?" I ask my guardian. He flicks his chin high hair out of his eyes.

"There is no lock."

"How do I… use the bathroom then?"

"I hope you have been taught how to use a bathroom, Miss." His brown eyes sparkle.

"Of course… but there's no lock…"

"A lock violates the St. Vladimir's Policy of Protection, Miss."

"But, the door won't stay closed. I need a lock." The desperation in my voice is embarrassing.

"The door has to be at least 2 inches open at all times when you are in the bathroom, it's under St. Vladimir's Policy of—"

"No!" I scream. This is not right. It should be mandatory that there's a lock on every bathroom door. How does he expect me to shower naked with the door open? Unless this is a load of bull and Guardian Pedo just wants an eye full.

As I'm having this frightful reverie of how unclean and constipated I will be in the future, Guardian Pedo speaks up again.

"It is for your safety. You will be given your privacy in there but it is required for the door to be open if there are any emergencies." He gave me a look of warning.

Oh. It dawned on me. I knew what he meant by "emergencies", it was in case anyone tries to commit suicide or drown themselves. Oh.

"Let's go down to the dining hall; dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can make some friends." My Guardian had pity in his voice. Whether it was for having no lock or making new friends, I don't know.

The acceptance of this new life ahead of me was hard to swallow down on. Here I was in a totally new environment with new rules and no friends. There was one thing I did know though; this path to my future will certainly not be an experience I'll ever forget.

**Ah so here it is! First chapter. I know it wasn't very exciting but this chapter was purely to let you begin to know what kind of life Lissa is going to have to live in. The next chapter will be about Lissa meeting some of the "crazy", she claims, people in St. Vlad's. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! You get a cookie :) Also, did anyone pick up on who the guardian was…hmmm.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! A BIG thanks to everyone who reviewed/alerted/favourited it means so much to me. Cookie for everyone! **

**Yes, I know the tense has changed since the last chapter but I find it easier to write in past tense. If anyone prefers present tense to past tense please let me know.**

**A/N: trainers mean sneakers.**

I'll admit it, I was scared. Never in my life had I been to a place like this, so I had nothing to compare it with. Although, one time I watched _Girl, Interrupted_ but I don't think that counts. I had no idea what these kids would be like. Rogue and aggressive? Silent and manic? I wasn't like that, I wouldn't fit in. That just proved my point on how I didn't need to be here.

I did try to stall a bit, back in my—I resent the 'my' part— bedroom but I couldn't handle Guardian Paedo and all his staring. Gees, it was like I was going to pull out a bomb from my pocket; all these looks of 'warnings' and 'suspiciousness' and when I huffed in frustration he would turn on his 'ignore the insolent teenager' face. So I took a brash decision to get out of the white little room of hell and go for dinner.

And that's where Guardian P was now leading me. Well, if you could call it leading; he was practically toppling on me. There was about 6 inches between us and he still didn't look happy about that. He probably thought I was going to go all maniac and leg it across the field, somehow manage to do a 40 foot jump over the fence and then hotwire a car so I could get back home. If I wasn't wearing strap on trainers (no shoe laces were allowed) I might have tried it.

We finally reach a building, which I assumed has the dining hall in it from all the delicious smells I could get, and my stomach dropped in panic, knotting and twisting itself. Guardian P opened the door, expecting me to walk in but I literally couldn't. I felt my eyes burning up again.

"Come on." He said with authority. His face softens after a moment and he nods as if it will be alright. I took a timid step in. "Are you hungry?"

I was, in truth, but I had a feeling if I ate anything it would go straight through me. I gave a half shrug. That made him nod happily. He opened another door and the dining hall awaited me. It didn't look as scary as I thought it would. Rich brown floorboards coated with a waxy shine complimented the cream walls. The serving spot, with all its selections of foods, was at the other end of the room. It was simple, but nice. Now that I'd taken in the decoration I noticed the people. There wasn't that many but still the thought was daunting. There must have been about 30 people in there, mostly sitting at tables in odd clusters. No one was doing anything odd; it was almost as if this was a normal school with normal people. Oh, how looks deceive. The normality was reassuring though, and it gave me the courage to start walking up the serving spot, with Guardian P following, of course.

"Dimka! I didn't know you had a case."

I turned to meet a pretty black haired woman, who seemed to be talking to my guardian. I took a second glance at her and noticed her face; there was a huge scar from the corner of her eye to the bottom of her cheek. It looked charred and contrasted with her clear creamy complexion. I held back a gasp.

"Ah, Tasha," Guardian 'Dimka' smiled at her, appearing to loosen up at the sight of her. "When did you get here?"

"A few hours ago; I came to visit Christian, so I couldn't miss seeing you too." She paused for a second and smiled politely at me before her eyes flicked back to Dimka. "I wouldn't have bothered you if I knew you were on guardian duty."

"I was assigned a couple of days ago. Lissa arrived today."

"Oh." Her voice held sympathy meant for me. "The first day is always the hardest, it gets easier after that."

I wanted to tell her how it wouldn't get easier, after all how could she understand, but I bit my tongue. I kept my eyes on her ice blue ones, trying not to stare at the huge rip on her face. It didn't work so I concentrated on the floor.

"Lissa, why don't you get some food? I'll be here if you need anything." Dimka said, aware of my difficulty to not stare at her scar.

"Sure." I mumbled and hurried off. The nicest thing on the serving platter was the chorizo pasta, so I got a bowl full and headed off for an empty table. I didn't manage to get the last empty table, instead I settled for one with only two people sitting on it, I moved to the very end but even that was too close; making friends with psychopaths was not on my list of things to do here.

"Hey Blondie." My plastic fork froze, midway from my bowl to my mouth and I looked nervously to the brunette girl at the other end of the table. She really was stunning. Even though she was sitting, I could see she had curves in all the right places. Her lightly tanned face glowed even with no makeup on and she winked one of her long lashed brown eyes at me. "I haven't seen you before."

It was quite embarrassing at how much I had begun to sweat. "I'm new."

"Mhmm, what do you think of her, Mase?" She looked at her friend on the opposite side. He had bright shaggy ginger hair.

"Little uptight…" He said, cocking his head to the side. "But I think she's got enough weirdness to hang with us. Along with hotness."

I looked uneasily between the two of them, hoping that was the last of the conversation.

"What department are you in, babe?" The ginger boy asked. The brunette made a disgusted noise.

"Mason, don't start 'babe-ing' her yet." Mason's cheeks went red.

"_Dead_ or alive, I'll try my luck." He shot back at the girl defensively, then after a few seconds of evil glaring, they crumbled into snickers.

"I'm Rose." The brunette said, and then waved a hand to Mason. "Don't mind Mason, he thinks he's dead and thinks that means he has the right to hit on any girl that arrives here."

I tried to look for the joke in her eyes, but there was none.

"You think your dead?" I repeated to Mason, he gave an embarrassed smirk.

"Well…not so much now." After a blank look from me, he continued. "I have, no, _had_ walking corpse disorder. But… it's okay now."

"Oh." I managed to say. "That's…"

"Yeah." He finished my sentence hastily before I could. "What are you in for?"

"Nothing as exciting as you're in for." I paused, frustration rolling off of me. "They think I have self harming issues, but I don't. I've tried telling them, like, a hundred times but they won't listen."

Rose laughed in a way that made me think she was making fun of me. "They're built like that. They think I have anger problems, no idea why though."

This time, Mason chocked up in hysterics. "Rose! You smashed through four windows when you first arrived. I think that might have led them on."

"Just making an entrance." She clipped back curtly, yet the humorous tone was still there.

At that moment I heard a tinkling laugh behind me and I turned to see Tasha, all giggles and smiles, flicking Dimka with her hand. It was sort of sickening. Rose saw me staring.

"You like what you see…?" She raised both her eyebrows, then the misbehaving look was thrown off for a second. "Hey, what _is_ your name?"

"It's Lissa. And no I do not. He's my guardian."

Both Rose and Mason's mouths dropped open.

"Belikov is your guardian?" Mason asked in astonishment.

"I thought his name was Dimka."

"It must be short for Dimitri." He said quickly as if the detail didn't matter. "Lissa, your guardian is _Dimitri Belikov_? He is the most badass guy in this place. No one's ever had him as a guardian, and I thought that was because he was too holy for anyone here. Wow. Do you use like a chainsaw to self harm or something?"

"No!" I cried a little offended. "I don't do any of that stuff. He doesn't seem that amazing, anyway. He ignores me most of the time."

"So young, so naïve." Mason gave a knowing look to Rose. "That's what he wants you to think. Haven't you ever heard of the saying 'silent but deadly'. He's like the American version of James Bond."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Mason, I think you better stop, before you get a hard on."

He shot playful daggers at her.

Okay, maybe I had overreacted. Things here didn't seem that bad. Rose and Mason, now diving back into their dinner, had been the most welcoming thing today and it gave me a huge feeling of relief. I was just scraping the remains of the pasta around my bowl when I felt someone behind me.

"Lissa." Dimitri said. "Headmistress Kirova wants to see you."

**It's the end of chapter 2, so you know what time it is… REVIEW TIME! Haha. **


	3. Chapter 3

"What for?" I waited for an answer, but Dimitri had already taken off, leaving me to hurry off behind him. I wanted to try and make conversation with him but he really didn't appear to be the talking type. We crossed through another field, I guess as a shortcut, and entered another identical building. If I didn't get lost during my stay here then it would surely be a miracle. Dimitri walked up to the front desk, murmured a few words, then like magic a short woman came out of the room behind and marched right up to us.

"Would you like to take a seat, Miss. Dragomir." It sounded like a question, but at her tone I knew it wasn't. This woman was a little unusual; looking at her white blond hair that was pulled into a stylish knot, wisps straying (it took me a second to realise it was her hair and not a wedding fascinator) and her fuchsia pink matching suit, I would have thought she would have been a little calmer. But I could tell she was getting ready to belt out something negative.

"Headmistress Kirova has been called into a meeting which has enabled her from being here." She glared down at me. I took a seat and noticeable shrunk down into it. Whatever this was could not be good. "I assume you understand about the levels here at St. Vladimir's."

"Yes." I stammered a bit. Levels were sort of like a reward and punishment system here. You had to have a certain number to get into the levels and the higher the level you were, the more leisure time you could have. I read it in the pamphlet I had been given in the car journey here.

"Then why you would abuse the system before you had even started baffles me." She revealed a plastic bag from behind her back. "It would lead you into the negative numbers."

"Abuse the system?" I asked innocently.

"This." She pulled out from the plastic bag a silky indigo bra with lace trimmings. _My_ bra. It had been my only fancy bra I had bought with me. Dimitri cleared his throat and looked away. "This clearly defies the rules here."

My cheeks burned up. "How did you get that?"

"Students' bags have to be checked for things like _this_." I let out an angry splutter, which she must have thought was a laugh. "You think this is funny?" The woman's eyes practically popped out her eye sockets. "Miss. Dragomir, this is an _underwire_ bra. Underwire bras are not allowed here. I will be keeping this until you depart. I do hope you have enough sports bras to last; if not we'll lend you some to borrow."

I almost did laugh out loud. The pamphlet had said, no mention of no underwire bras, that you were only allowed to bring three pairs of underwear and bras. That was barely enough anyways.

"I hope you take this as seriously as we are; whether it was purposely taken or by mere incident. This object has been banned for the risk of self mutualisation attempts, which does happen in the department you have been sectioned to." She stuffed my bra back into the bag. "You may go."

* * *

><p>"Why<em> do<em> you think you're here then?" Deidre, my counsellor, asked for the third time. I looked out the window, sighing. It was a beautiful morning. No clouds, just the shining sun. Too bad I was in a stuffy room being interrogated.

"I don't know."

"Are you sure?" She leaned forward towards me and I leaned back even further into my chair.

"My parents thought something was wrong with me but there's not. I'm being an average teenage girl."

"What did they say to make you feel they thought something was 'wrong' with you?"

"They didn't say anything to make me think that."

"Then why would you think that?" The endless questioning never stopped and I turned robotic with my answers, hoping to sway her off but it didn't. After my session I looked over my timetable to see I had English next. My whole timetable had so much stuff packed into it that didn't leave me to do much by myself. I think that was the school's way of trying to tire us out so much we couldn't think about going back to the 'dark side'.

I perked up a bit when I saw Rose sitting at one of the tables in my English class. I pulled up a chair next to her and she grinned when she saw me.

"So you survived last night." She turned, still slouched over the desk, to face me.

"Guess so." I grabbed some paper and a pen on the side of the desk and wrote the date on a clean sheet. "No one tried to murder me at least."

"Just wait until it's a full moon; that's when things get wild." She joked but it filled me with unease.

"You better be kidding."

"Don't tell me you believe in that crap." Her brown eyes widened with surprise and she waved a hand. I looked away hoping Rose couldn't see the answer 'yes' in my eyes when I saw a black blur behind me. It was a boy dressed all in black with black hair and all. It was as if there was no colour allowed within a 2 mile radius of him. He looked up, catching my gaze. He had the most beautiful eyes; ice blue and shining, though they were held with a cruel look that didn't match the beauty of them. There was something familiar about them that I couldn't put my finger on.

I suddenly realised that I was staring and I quickly turned back to my desk, blushing.

"Um. No. Lissa. Just no." Rose whisper shouted to me, she huddled closer to me. "That was a second too long for a normal glance. You don't know who that is!"

"Calm down, I just looked at him." I whispered back.

"That's Christian Ozera. He is the creepiest guy in here, Lissa. Seriously, stay the hell away from him or everyone will think you've joined his crazy ass cult."

"His cult?"

"Yeah. It got around what he's in here for. I mean, the guardians aren't allowed to tell students about other people's problems but somehow it got out. No one went near him before that, but then _after_ it got out…it's like everyone's scared of even mentioning him. So they don't. They pretend he doesn't exist."

I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. It was like the nightmares in St. Vladimir's were truly unravelling.

"He set fire to his parents."

"What?" I said a little too loud. We both turned to see if he was looked but he was scratching something into the desk.

"I know it's mad, even for this place. Apparently he was always a quiet kid, then one day he just set fire to his house with everyone in it. His aunt turned up and went in to save whoever she could but she only managed to get him."

"Are his parents…" I couldn't finish the sentence.

"Dead? Yeah, they are." Rose's pretty face was crumpled with grimness. "That's why you need to keep away from him."

"Class!" A bald man appeared and clapped his hands for attention. "Ah, the only student who bothered to prepared for this lesson." He pointed at the paper in front of me. "And what's your name?"

"Lissa, sir."

"Welcome Lissa, 5 points for excellent preparation." It was like Hogwarts, except the points were going towards my level 1. Only 95 more points to go…

I didn't learn much from that English lesson; only Romeo was not a tragic hero, Rose sure did like to argue with teachers and that I had a potential murderer a few feet behind me.

**Love it? Hate it?..**_**.PLEASE**_**review****. Every review matters! Criticism is welcome :) **


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter 4... Thank you xx-RedRoseBlackThorn-xx for being so much help and beta-ing this chapter :) **

As my first week passed by, things started to fall into place. Rose and I began to hang out during our free time. We were so different but in ways that it worked out well. She always said things that I could never say out loud, always pushing her boundaries, yet somehow managing to squirm out of trouble. That's how she had been able to get me to the lounge during the out of hours for people who hadn't reached level 1. Rose did most of the talking when she announced to Dimitri that I had a 'very important assessment that's in for tomorrow', which he didn't believe for a second, and after a 10 minute argument, or 'persuasion' Rose's words, I was on my way to the back of the lounge.

The lounge was one of my favourite places here. The centre was shaped as a circle, fully accustomed with sofas and TVs, then it branched off into a narrower hallway with twists and turns that kept you hidden if you wanted. Right at the end was a beautiful stained glass window with a cushioned window seat underneath.

I snuggled up into one corner of the window seat and flipped open a borrowed book from the library, that we were supposed to be getting information from for our 'assessment'.

"Then she says I'm a whore in front her little posse." Rose spat out in disgust, I must have missed the first part of what she was saying.

"Who did?"

"That scrawny Mia bitch. Who does she think she is? Like the next Madonna or something?"

"You listen to Madonna?" I hid a giggle.

"No, but Madonna is old and can still wear leotards without people slamming her so she must be important." Rose put her head in her hands, looking deep in concentration. "Without her little posse what would she be? Nothing." Her head shot up. "Liss, that's it. We need to destroy her posse."

"That's a little harsh." I said, feeling uncomfortable.

"You don't know her. Seriously, she's been making my life here miserable. She thinks she so cool when, um, hello she looks like a friggen American Girl doll on a water diet."

"Have I met her?"

"Not with me, you haven't. It'd be pretty obvious if she was around when I was. She'd be breathing fire. Literally." I rolled my eyes at Rose, giving her a disappointed look. She shrugged it off. "She looks like a piece of fake crap. You smell plastic? It's Mia." Rose groaned. "I don't know how much pain my eyes can take from looking at her."

"That's so cruel, Rose." I gave her the disapproving look again but couldn't help laughing. "You really are terrible."

"Just wait until you see this bitch doing her _stupid fucking strut_." Rose was practically shouting out now, getting so worked up. I saw Dimitri peek a suspicious look at us from where he was standing in the centre of the lounge and I paged through the book, pretending to study. Rose, on the other hand, snapped out of her Mia rage and flashed him a huge seductive smile.

"How can you have the nerve to do that, Rose?" I asked in astonishment.

"He isn't so bad. He's one of my teachers for anger management." My mouth popped open at this news. The only times Dimitri wasn't with me was during lessons and during the night. Since there was always going to be a teacher in a classroom, most guardians didn't have to stay unless their student was on a red card or something. During the night, we had a night warden so guardians could get some sleep. It never occurred to me that Dimitri did anything else out of his hours with me.

"Dimitri never mentioned that."

"Yeah, he's like that." Rose had a faint pink flush crawling on her cheeks. "He teaches self-defence. They reckon all that physical stuff gets anger out of people."

"If you need someone to get physical with, all you have to do is ask." A new voice spoke from the cramped hallway. Jesse Zeklos. And his creepy friend Ralf Sarcozy. Jesse seemed okay to talk to but I don't think I could bear any lengthy conversation with him. I didn't know why he was in here but he held a rich and popular air to him which made me think he parents could afford to send him here without a problem, which was almost never the case for most of the people here. He was good looking, just not to my tastes which was the complete opposite for Rose; she thought he was the only 'juicy piece of meat in this butcher shop'.

"You wish, Zeklos." Rose spat out the words, but they were laced with a suggestive tone. "You'd have to work harder than that if you wanted this."

"I like a challenge, especially one that has such a good reward." He licked his lips. I wanted to be sick.

"What do you want?" Rose a little more viscously this time but still had that the hook-Jesse-in voice on. She pointed at me with her thumb. "We have business to discuss."

"Oh, yeah? What kind of business is that?" Jesse perked up even more at the chance of hearing gossip while Ralf, at his side, acted like an obedient dog hanging on Jesse's words.

"Business that you boys can't handle. Sorry."

Jesse looked a little insulted, then after a few seconds of self healing his ego, a slow smile spread on his face. "Well, maybe you and I should create our own business then. Meet in the lounge Wednesday night?" His eyes zoomed out from Rose and he seemed to remember Ralf and me still in the room. "Why don't you guys come too? It could be like a double date."

I hoped I didn't look as sickened as I felt at the thought. Sure enough, Ralf might have been a nice person, but so far he didn't seem so. He sat behind me in Chemistry, and more than once I heard him making crude comments about girls in my class. Maybe that was _so_ bad, but it still put me way off. I shot Rose a subtle SOS look.

"Lissa's got an extra activity on Wednesday. Unless you think you can bunk it, Liss?" Rose threw me the same subtle look back. Times like these, I loved Rose so much.

I bit my lip, pretending to consider hard. "I don't think I can; I've got Mr. Nagy and he'd throw a fit. Sorry."

Ralf crooked a disappointed smile. "Maybe some other time, babe?"

"Yeah, maybe." Not.

"It'll just be us then, Rose." Jesse didn't seem half as sad as Ralf. "See you there then."

With that they took off.

* * *

><p>"Aprons on!"<p>

Ugh, I hated that woman.

"Hairnets on!" Ms. Carmack crowed. "Hurry up! We don't have enough time to mess about."

For a fact, we had plenty of time. Probably too much time. After all, it didn't take long to whip up a sponge cake. I had a sneaky suspicion that we were only allowed to bake in Food Technology because there were no knives involved. Not that that stopped two guys in front of me from having a sword fight with wooden spoons.

Ugh, I hated this class.

"Shane! Miles! Put down those spoons before I give you a week's detention."

I turned around and starting unloading the equipment on the counter that was behind me. The tables used for Food Technology required you to be opposite someone and I surely couldn't stand having to look at either one of them. I was a little smug when I saw I was the only one ready; I had had my points sheet signed by quite a few teachers this past week, which had me steadily towards my Level 1 target, and was hoping she would give a few points for this. Damn. _Had I always been such a goody-two-shoes?_

After some more scolding the class was set up and weighing ingredients. I pulled open the container of self-raising flour and started spooning it into my bowl.

"This shouldn't be taking so long!" Ms. Carmack screeched so loudly I dropped my spoon full of flour. _Oh, shit_. She was going to kill me. I scrambled on the floor and blew the flour in every direction, hoping it would spread out so much that she wouldn't notice.

Someone snorted with laughter. It was Christian Ozera. Laying out his equipment on the opposite side of my table. Just like magic, he had appeared out of thin air. The conversation I had with Rose in English flew straight into my mind. He'd burned his parents alive. I was unconsciously staring at him and he seemed to realise, throwing on an evil smile that really freaked the crap out of me. He leaned on the gas cooker next to him, his fingers tapping on the knob.

"Vasilisa, do you need the bathroom?" Ms. Carmack leaned over me. I glanced up at her, looking like a complete retard still crouching on the floor. I mentally slapped myself. Miles went into fits of laughter.

"Don't be stupid, Ms. Girls don't use the toilet."

"Miles, that is a foolish thing to say. You boys have a warped idea of what girls are. Vasilisa is a human being, like the rest of us. And _yes_ she has to use the bathroom just as you do."

There was an uproar of laughter. _Please, just let the floor open up and eat me._

"Now, Vasilisa, what is the matter?"

"Nothing, I just…" I squeaked shyly. She took hold of my spoon and started pouring in the flour herself.

"This is taking too long. If nothing is wrong, then stand up and do this properly."

I stood behind her as she did all my ingredients, feeling like a 3 year old who needed help with the simplest thing. Christian was 'as good as gold', with all his food measured and waiting with a bored expression for the next step. It was like the whole evil stare/cooker tapping thing never happened. Just then, he looked at me with an amused smirk that I wanted to scratch the hell off. There was no way I was going to let a boy, let alone one as creepy and messed up as him, try to scare me. I shot back my own form of scary-Mary eyes. He kept his gaze on me as if it were a no blinking match, then looked away with that arrogant smirk still plastered on his face. I took that as surrender.

Baking the cake was pretty easy. Mix the ingredients and put into the oven. I thought it was straight forward until it I heard some ferocious giggles on the table beside me. One of the laughing girls caught me watching.

"Shh! Don't tell Carmack." She pointed to the ceiling, where yellowy gloop was splattered, threatening to drip off.

"Oh my gosh, Camille. What if she sees?" The other went into another laughing frenzy. It took only a few seconds for their laughter to stop when they saw Christian. Camille gave me cold look while the other girl showed more sympathy. Rose was right about the whole avoiding Christian thing.

The oven bleeper went off and I went to get my cakes. A wave of hot air blew out of the oven when I opened it, after wafting the air for a bit I reached for my cake.

Two hard hands grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me back. I toppled over, into the legs of Christian.

"What the hell?" I whispered, too shocked to talk. "Get off me you _freak_!"

His face changed from a comfortable blankness that I had never seen on him into the usual hatred and scorn. His crystal blue eyes pierced through me and I felt a strange surge of sadness.

"Are you really suicidal or plain stupid?" He spat out in a hushed tone that sent chills down my spine. He grabbed something off the counter and threw it next to me. "Oven mitts."

_Oh. I had completely forgotten to put the mitts on_. If Christian hadn't saved—cliché, I know, but true—me I would have burned my hands and the metal cake tins.

I could literally see the regret and guilt floating in the air, black and thick and churning, then swooping down seeping into me. Poisoning.

Christian had sauntered off in the corner with an aura filled with everything bad. Hate. Loneliness. Rejection.

Inside of me, I felt something break. The yearning to take all the badness away filled me, bursting out of each and every cell I had. A thin layer of tears surfaced my eyes. I couldn't do anything. There was nothing I _could_ do to make it better.

Getting up off the floor, for the second time today, I took out my cakes. They hadn't risen well and looked a little stodgy. Christian still hadn't come back and didn't look as if he would, so I took out his cakes too. They were perfect. Golden and fluffy. The sides weren't even burnt.

I stood staring at his cakes, hoping the sick feeling of shame would go down. I had treated Christian just how everyone else had, like he was the plague. I didn't even know him. I just believed the rumours. Christian didn't have to stop me getting my cakes but he did. An evil monster, like everyone had believed he was, wouldn't do that. Evil doesn't do things like that.

Maybe Rose wasn't right after all.

**HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! Virtual chocolate Easter eggs for everyone who reviews! And who can say no to chocolate? :) **


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone :) This chapter came a little quicker than the last... due to me not be bothering to do my art homework. Oh, welll haha :) Now, this Chapter is in Rose's POV. Not sure if that's what you guys want or not. Let me know if this works out and I'll do some more chapters in Rose's POV. **

**And I need to thank xx-RedRoseBlackThorn-xx for beta-ing this chapter :) You are wonderful. **

**Rose POV**

"Mason, you should know me by now." I said, licking donut icing off my lips. "I always win at rock, paper, scissors."

He sighed unhappily. "How do you do it? Every time!"  
>"It scares me too, Mase. My awesomeness is on so many levels. Why you'd bet your donut on it, I don't know."<p>

"Foolishly in love." Eddie Castile muttered from behind us. Mason gave him a light punch on the arm.

"Yeah, in the love with the adrenaline rush of gambling."

"Sure."

A smile flickered on my face; I knew Mason had a crush on me. It was obvious. We constantly joked and flirted. Only sometimes—well, most of the time, actually— I think he really did flirt in hope of reeling me into his love boat. Not that that was a bad thing. He _was_ cute after all. Ginger hair that flopped over his forehead constantly, and a cute grin to match. And he was a nice, funny guy who, really, was the only guy who could get me into hysterics. Where did he go wrong? He didn't. But, it was weird to think of him that way. I mean, he's Mason... Mason Ashford. To me, our friendship could only be platonic. But, hey. I'll let him dream.

"Woo!" Mason screamed randomly and spread his hands out in the air. "Snow!"

I looked at the sky, full of hope. Teeny, tiny snow drops landed on my face. "Yes!"

"Come on, baby!" Eddie shouted to the sky.

"Thank god. Dimitri can't make me run laps in this."

"Urgh." Mason sighed unhappily as the snow began to fall harder, creating a layer on snow on the ground. "Rover's going to smell like wet dog."

I snorted, "You're still doing that session? I pulled out of that as fast as I could. I mean, how the hell is petting a dog going make to make me calm?"

"Lucky you. If I start rambling about Rover missing his heart or something; you think that'd get me out?"

I considered, reminiscing my own plot to get out of doggy day care. Ms. Karp, a crazy teacher, opted for a slot in the timetable dedicated to spending half hour with a straggly dog. Yeah, you heard right. Apparently petting dogs is the solution to life's problems. Me, being not so found with the smelly pooch, used some of my finest angry faces and threats to get out of that blow out class. And it was declared, for the safety of the dog, that Rosemarie Hathaway did not have to attend. Mason's Walking Corpse Disorder gave him a few good getaway options. Many sufferers of Walking Corpse Disorder believe that they're missing vital organs, which technically made them dead, and although Mason never did think that (he believed he had been murdered and had come back as a ghost or some sort of dead person), he could start telling porkies about the dog to make Ms. Karp freak out and think the dog was making his condition worse.

"A few crocodile tears might speed up the process."

Mason put on his goofy grin, slinging an arm round my shoulders. "What would I do without you?"

"Probably be spending most of your time thinking up someone new to jerk off—Ow!" Snow clashed with the back of my head, dripping onto my shoulders. "You going to wish you never did the, Castile!"

"Bring it! You too, lover boy!"

Mason and I swapped a knowing glance at each other, then started scraping up all the snow we could, ready to pelt at Eddie. A few others recruited to Eddie's side but Mase and I took them to town. We had snowballs- big and small -hurtling in every direction. My hands stung from the cold, and the places where I had been hit by snowballs were soaked. Not that it mattered to me. I just knew if a teacher saw, we'd all be screwed. _Ah, the pleasure of being Levels 2s_. For some idiotic—but extremely useful in situations like these—reason, students who had reached level 2 and over were permitted to walk to classes without their guardians. It was the whole lesson of learning to be 'independent' again. Oh man, was I glad to be over level 1.

That's when I saw the perfect opportunity. Eddie was bent over in front of me, making a snowball. _Ah, classic._ With my snowball ready in my head, I snapped my arm back, positioning my aim to precision, lunging forward for the best impact I could get, then just as I was about to release—

"_FUCK_!" I screamed, seeing flashing black and blue lights in my eyes. It was silent all around me, like the calmness before a storm. I dropped the snowball in my head, and cupped my eye, swirling in my spot. "_Who threw a hammer into my fucking eye?"_

My eye began pounding painfully and just as I started to regain my vision, I looked at the ground to see a smashed up snowball with a huge stone in the middle.

"Rose! What happened?" Mason was suddenly at my side, holding onto my shoulders. He tried to pry my fingers off my eye and I let out an angry growl.

"Someone threw a fucking snowball bomb in my eye." I moved my hand and turned my face to Mason. "How bad does it look?"

"Shit, Rose." He gulped a bit. "We've gotta get you to the first aid room. Your eye is black…and pulsing!"

I swore again. "Listen, do you think I could patch it up with some concealer or something?"

"Are you out of your mind, Rose?" Mason shook me a little in frustration. "It's like a golf ball! You need to get something for it. Medically, I mean."

Groaning, I crouched onto the floor, noticing everyone staring at me. "I can't do that. We'll all be fucked if they find out about this."

"And you'll be blind if you don't do something about it! Plus, it's not like it's easy to hide, someone's going to see it and start asking questions." I went to say something but he cut me off and lifted me to my feet. "Shush. I'll come with you to the medical room."

I pushed him off me and glared—_ouch_—at him. "Stop being so fucking gallant; you'll get everyone in trouble. I'll go by myself and say I tripped on the steps."

He was about to argue again, but I started to walk off. "Pretend I was never here. See you later, Mase."

Okay, maybe now I understood why teachers freaked at the idea of snowball fights. I guess people are stupid enough to pick up stones in them. I kept my head down as I walked through the fields, even though most people were off to the next class, I couldn't risk being seen with this extra growth of an eye.

"Hey, Little Flower."

I turned to see a good looking guy who was probably a few years older than me, lounging on a wall.

"Excuse me?" I put as much disgust as I could make into my words at his 'flower' comment. He laughed quietly at himself and pointed to my head. I reached and felt something bobbly, and wet with snow, in my silky hair. I pulled out a little daisy that had been tangled in my locks. He said nothing, but instead, ate up my appearance, because, of course, I looked super sexy with my third eye growing. I started walking away. "Well, if your done wasting seconds of my life…"

"Where's your guardian?" He said abruptly, catching hold of my gaze again.

"I'm my own guardian." I replied with sarcasm, because his question was pretty stupid and the answer was pretty obvious.

"Ah." He tried to keep his subtle little smile down, which made the appeal to keep looking at him strengthen. "I need a new guardian, think you can handle me?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"Ouch." Keeping his eyes on me, he patted around in his pocket, grimacing. _Weird, kid_. Kid? Was he even that? _Adult, perhaps._ "Hasn't your class started? Or are you bunking?"

I touched my eye. It was swelling even more. "Going to the med room."

He nodded with a small frown. "You in for self- harm?"

"Nope. The steps got the better of me."

"Need a man to help you up, next time?" He cocked his arm out, as if I were to take it.

"No." I said defensively. "And definitely not from you."

Even with a clear rejection, this guy didn't seem fazed, still keeping his eyes glued on me. Realisation hit me. "Shit, what time is it?"

"Quarter to, last time I checked."

"I'm late. Really late. Dimitri's going to kill me."

The guy's lazy smile increased and he chuckled. "So _that's_ who you are; the infamous Rose Hathaway. You're just as beautiful as legend has it."

"Glad I kept up to expectations." I said bitterly. I_ really_ had to go; broken eye or not, I didn't want to have to make up for lost lesson time later. "Treasure this moment as best you can; the legend is leaving."

He cracked up into a loud laugh, choking at the end. "Well, Rose Hathaway. It's only polite to meet the discoverer of this legend again. It's Adrian Ivashkov."

"Too bad I'm not polite." _Urgh, so that's who he was._ The Ivashkov family were wealthy and well known in the real world. They also had _a lot_ of family members. They had some sort of company or investments that kept the bank rolls regularly rolling in. So, he was a 'Royal' as we liked to call it. People who were spoiled and rich and doted on. And frankly, who acted as if they were Royal. That's where the label came from. Whenever they had a minor problem, they were sent off to here. We had them all. The Taurus', Scarcozys, Lazars, Badicas, Ozeras (even though they had gone off the map now, because of what happened) and the Contas. And that's only six of the twelve families branded as Royal. There's always at least one from each here at a time. And all for shitty reasons. Adrian had probably been hospitalised for losing a favourite designer coat.

Adrian, not aware of my Royal hating going on, laughed. "I'll take that as Rose language for: catch you later then."

"Bye, Adrian." I walked away, with no intention of stopping again this time. My eye really felt like shit now.

"See you, Little Flower."

"Don't call me that."

From behind me, I heard quiet laughing.

I was sitting in a comfy grey seat, with an ice pack on my eye (it wasn't broken, can you believe that?), waiting for Dimitri to pick me up from the medical room. Apparently, I couldn't be trusted to make it to the gym without 'tripping up' again. The glass doors of the office opened up automatically and a gust of snowy wind blew into the office area, flicking the bottom of Dimitri's long coat as he walked in. His tied up hair was drenched from the snow. And, boy, did that look good on him. I kept the ice pack firmly on my eye, covering any inch of bruising that might have been showing. He strode into the medical room and stood in the doorway, looking at me. _Urgh, I felt stupid._

"Do you prefer staying here or do you want to come back with me?" He said. In any other situation, I would have said that sounded seriously suggestive.

"I'm fine." I said gruffly. "To your place, Comrade."

I claimed the ice pack for the rest of the day from the nurse even though the swelling and pain was going down; there was no way in hell Dimitri or anyone else—let me correct that, _especially_ Dimitri—was going to see my eye. We sat on one of the gym benches.

"Are you up for some work?" He picked up some boxing gloves and I almost fell out of my seat. No laps? Hell yeah, I was up for it.

"Woah, the doubt you have for me is insulting." Dimitri looked cautiously at me. Gees, not kidding about the disbelief. I stood up and reached for the gloves in his hands. "Ready, Comrade."

He retracted the gloves from my clutches and threw them into a bag. "Alright then. Ten laps."

"_What_?"

"Ten laps." He grabbed the stopwatch from around his neck. He'd ripped me off. Whether he'd realised it or not. Guess it was back to the laps. I pulled my leg back in a stretch and got set to run.

"Rose." I looked back at Dimitri, he was holding out his hand. "Ice pack."

My heartbeat started to climb. "No, I want it on."

"You can't run like that, Rose. I'll hold the pack."

"I can run like this. Watch me." I took off. Who was I kidding? In a matter of steps, I had a strong hand grip my arm, halting me. Dimitri pulled me around to look at his face and touched the ice pack.

"Let me see."

I wanted to tell him to get off, to rip my arm from him and really run, out of this building and out of this stupid school. Just running and running into freedom. All the guardians and teachers behind me. All the anger and embarrassment dissolving with every step.

Instead, I took a deep breath and let the ice pack fall. Dimtri's face was unreadable. He too let the ice pack drop to the floor and kept one hand on my arm and the other hovering on my face, almost as an embrace. "Does it hurt?"

"No." I said somewhat truthfully. I was fully aware of the intimate space between us; his hands touching me, the closeness of our bodies, but I couldn't shake the inner anger inside of me. It was there, even if it hadn't made its appearance. I wanted to scream and shout. But I couldn't. Not to Dimitri. After a minute, Dimitri pulled back from me and cleared his throat.

"Let's run." Was all he said, and then he started round the gym track. In shock, I followed him.

It was during the eighth lap that I felt the inner demon leaking out. My muscles were beginning to feel the ache and exhaustion was starting to overcome me. It was a good feeling though, like a climax of relaxation. We didn't speak the whole time and I kind of liked that; the silence was comfortable. I finished the run more out of breath than Dimitri, who recovered impressively within seconds, and I decided right there and then, I wouldn't be like that next time—if there was ever a next time of this. I felt the need to do something impressive that he would be proud of.

My lesson with Dimitri had almost finished; most of the time was spent in the medical room (and talking to Adrian). He wiped his face with the towel I had just used to do that with. And I couldn't decide whether that was gross or not, but my mind was wandering more to the not.

I left Dimitri in a better mood, considering the events of the day, taking my time to make it to next lesson since no one else had been let out yet. I was just crossing the corner of the building when I heard a sickly sweet voice.

"I saw what you were doing over there with him, Rose. Tut, tut. Wonder if he'll be kicked out for messing with little girls."

**Dum dum dummmmm... Wonder who it is? Have a guess. It's easy to do... just one little click down below :) **


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